R4 3DS .org

The ZX Spectrum was easily one of the most popular computer / game systems of the 1980's.  Selling millions upon millions of units around the world, meant that there were thousands and thousands of games released and available to buy and play.  It was one of the biggest competitors to the c64 computer, which was equally popular.  Despite the fact that many of the games were black and white (with many color games that followed as the system got older), it has some of the very best games of the day.  In fact, it often surpassed the other computers of the games graphically.  Many of the best arcade conversions were first released for the Speccy, as it was affectionately called by owners back then.  Today, you can use your R4 3DS and your Nintendo 3DS system to replay some of these amazing games once again, this time in a portable format thanks to ZXDS.

Some noteable games came our for the ZX and every single port of the days popular arcade games too.  Manic Miner got it's start on the Speccy, as did Commando, Contra and games like R-Type (all 3 of them) too.  Looking at some of these games today, new gamers may wonder what the appeal is of older monochrome games may be.  For those of us that grew up with the system though, we need to explaining.  We grew up playing these games, exploring the dungeons and levels of multiple "screens" as they used to be called.  Being able to bring them all back today, with the R4 3DS and hand held game systems, it a dream come true.

The list of updates and changes, while not exhaustive, is quite long.  The developer continues to make this the very best ZX Spectrum emulator available for the DS, DSi and 3DS systems.... and we salute him for doing all of this hard work, all absolutely free.  Check out the list of changes and updates below to see just what the developer has been up to.  One thing is for sure.... you can expect better game compatibility and more games to load without glitches or problems.

+ Custom keyboard support. See custom/readme.txt for more info.
+ Favorite/recent files lists showing up to 500 most/last used files.
+ TR-DOS disk browser for viewing both disk directory and sector data.
It can be used to insert empty disk images as well.
+ TR-DOS disk images can be now saved in SCL format, too.
* Keep the file viewer visible while enabling button input by pressing R.
* Little UI graphics improvements (nicer icons, empty requesters).
+ Added skins/light/style.cfg for those who prefer black text on white.
* Few subtle TR-DOS changes (density check, zero files SCL).
* Few subtle tape related changes (tape block flush, PZX fast loading test).
* Other subtle changes (widget help tracking, virtual files stats).
* Minor bugfixes (IN[ID]® postdecrement, libfat lseek).

You can find out more about ZXDS or Download the latest version from the official site, or our 3ds homebrew section.